Appealing the Bedroom Tax

[Deleted User]

mysterywoman10 wrote: »

Yes I think you said on the other thread a while back you were going to be moving anyway because you wanted to set up a special needs child minding business? All the best with that.

Thanks for that mysterywoman am looking forward to it , in this current climate it is difficult to know the way forward to survive let alone live , but if we look after ourselves , our families and others around us / in society ( ESPECIALLY the vunerable ) then I reckon we will be fine! xxxx

pipkin71

sunnyone wrote: »

I must of imagined my first stairlift, I also know other people who had stairlifts provided in both social and private lets, it depends on needs and needs only.

I agree as well. It does depend on need but OTs do provide stairlifts if there is a need for them - either critical or substantial.

mysterywoman10

pipkin71 wrote: »

I agree as well. It does depend on need but OTs do provide stairlifts if there is a need for them - either critical or substantial.

They very rarely do in our area, but I am sure you are both right if you have personal experience of it.

There is also the issue of whether a property is suitable some much older properties are not.

Welshdresser

The under-occupation charges are now part of legislation so unless you fall into one of the exempt groups, you have no grounds for an appeal and this letter will not change that.

Try a discretionary housing payment claim but bear in mind that if you are sucessful, it will only be a short term fix and any award will not continue indefinately. (its a limited pot of money)

The only long term solution is to fill up your bedrooms or downsize.

mysterywoman10

Welshdresser wrote: »

The under-occupation charges are now part of legislation so unless you fall into one of the exempt groups, you have no grounds for an appeal and this letter will not change that.

Try a discretionary housing payment claim but bear in mind that if you are sucessful, it will only be a short term fix and any award will not continue indefinately. (its a limited pot of money)

The only long term solution is to fill up your bedrooms or downsize.

I think AB will have something to say about that if they reappear.

There are numerous groups that have grounds for appeal, the original letter is abstract.

The couples that one has a disablity and can't share a room, people with adapted properties. I'm confident those groups will become exempt.

People with two children under 10 or one child will bear the loss of their £14 a week benefit.

There will be a good case for single disabled without carers that were allocated the property in the first place on their need and no alternatives available in their area.

Doesn't really leave that many under occuppiers. Does it?

Welshdresser

As legal challenges are fought and won against this new legislation more and more vulnerable groups of people will fall into exempt categories, but as things stand at present, there are only very few exemptions and that is why DHP is the best option for the present time.

mysterywoman10

I agree but it is going to being very sparce so don't want to raise people's hopes, I also think this puts more pressure on LA's than appeals.

I did the figures somewhere dividing 100,000 adapted properties alone only gives £200 per annum. Which leaves a shortfall of over £500.

Welshdresser

You're right not wanting to get people's hopes up, DHP won't be awarded to everyone who applies. It's early days yet so we don't know how LA's will assess DHP claims in light of under-occ charges. So far we have had only a few claims approved in advance, these have been for families caring for disabled children and in adapted properties. One LA in our area is refusing to look at any claims until after 1st april, another has said that only vulnerable people receiving support, with health problems or those who can demonstrate extreme hardship will be likely to benefit. We will get a better idea once some more decisions are made.

Anyone seriously worried about paying should seek advice from their landlord about all the options open to them, or from Shelter/CAB. My association is coming up with lots of ideas for schemes, financial help with moving, a matching service for exchanges, priority on the waiting list for transfering, budgeting & moneysaving advice.

mysterywoman10

Thanks Welshdresser sorry if my first post to you sounded off

Sounds like a lot of work for the HA's involved hopefully if enough people end up being exempted the government will realise what a ridiculous situation they have created.

Thanks for all the information, very helpful.

panther_87k

sunnyone wrote: »

Any distance he can walk in pain is discounted for DLA purposes.





Since you have had at least three decision makers and an appeal panel look at his applications for DLA he either must not fulfil the criteria or he dosnt have the medical evidence to back up his claim, do you have recent medical reports on his condition?
cant remember the first DLA claim but for the second they requested a report from the rheumatology consultant and the GP, neither gave ANY details apart from name of condition, medication provided. Eventually found out that the rheumatologists report was filled out by her PA, not her.

His age has nothing to do with his claim, Ive been getting DLA since I was 23.

You can get RA at any age, even toddlers can get it and its a very easy diagnosis to make, even for the rarer sero negative type that I have.

Its done initally by blood tests by your GP and then scans and xrays to back up the results of the blood tests done at the hospital, its a rhumatologist that does the "real" diagnosis of RA (orthapods for OA which again can be diagnosed at any age, I was in my teens when I was dignosed with that form of arthritis) and puts you on the meds needed to control the disease, does he have evidence of this process and is he on drugs to control his condition?

His is rhesus negative which is why it has taken 5 years to get a diagnosis, no one wanted to commit to it in case there was something else they were missing. blood tests come back normal as do xrays, a course of steroid based drugs (weaned off over 4 weeks) was used as a test and his positive reaction to that is what convinced the consultant to diagnose polyarthralgia. Since then he had one disease modifying drug but had a very bad bout of anxiety as soon as he started on them and was advised to stop them by GP, turns out it wasnt a side effect of the drug though. Since then has only been offered regular painkillers/anti inflammatories. Is having physio for neck, something which is a side effect of the arthritis.

Unfortunately after changing GP's in May last year the new GP didnt recieve any files from old GP (for all 3 of us) only what we had been given etc whilst with them. At the same time it seems his name was accidentally dropped from the RA consultants patient list, so had nearly a year between appointments. Only now has the GP got all letters from consultant that had been previously passed to old GP.

Does he go to a pain clinic and does he have reports from them?

Not been offered anything like pain clinic, just physio for his neck and painkillers.

Has he seen an OT, physio etc. and does he have medical reports from them?

only had 2 physio app's, no reports from them at the moment

Im not being nosey, the above is the proof needed to claim DLA for RA/polyarthalgia and if he has both the historic reports to confirm his diagnosis and recent medical reports about how the disease is currently he would stand a much better chance of getting DLA and he will needs similar proof for his ESA claim.

Dont worry, I dont think you're being nosy. Im not sure what historic info there is as previous GP seems to have lost most of it.

For the ESA changeover his condition is on the list of conditions which could be passed straight over into the support group without a face to face assessment IF he can provide documentary evidence to back up his claim (its best to avoid a face to face assessment if possible, they cant get things worng if they have never met you )

Being with a great GP now, hopefully we can get a decent report written up if needed.

If you need help with anohter DLA claim/his changeover to ESA its might be better to start a new thread, good luck.

Hope that has helped you understand our circumstances a bit better, any more advice greatfully recieved.:)